Brussels, June 16th, 2025 (CPA) – The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, which is examining the assassination of the former prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1961 on Tuesday, wants Etienne Davignon to be referred to the criminal court, Belgian French-language broadcaster RTBF announced on its website on Monday.
‘After more than ten years of investigation, the Brussels chamber of counsel is beginning to examine the case in order to decide whether or not a trial should take place. The federal public prosecutor’s office is calling for the case to be referred to the criminal court. The public prosecutor wants a trial to be held for ‘participation in war crimes’. Etienne Davignon would then be ‘the only one on trial’, explained the Belgian media. Patrice Lumumba, the 1st Congolese Prime Minister, was assassinated on January 17th, 1961 in Katanga province, in the south of the Republic of Congo, along with two of his companions, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito. A Belgian parliamentary commission of enquiry concluded in 2001 that ‘certain members of the Belgian government and other Belgian actors had a moral responsibility in the circumstances that led to his death’.
In 2022, the Belgian government apologized for the way in which Belgium had influenced the decision to end the life of the 1st Prime Minister of the DRC. However, there are still many grey areas concerning who was responsible for the events leading up to the assassination, according to RTBF.
A criminal investigation was opened in Belgium following a complaint lodged in 2011 by the Lumumba family. This judicial investigation has now been completed, and the federal prosecutor’s office is calling for a trial before a criminal court for the unlawful detention and transfer of a prisoner of war, and for depriving him of the right to an impartial trial, as well as for subjecting him to humiliating and degrading treatment. At the time of the events, Etienne Davignon, now aged 92 and the only living Belgian official among the ten people targeted by the complaint, was a trainee diplomat sent to the region by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He later became Minister of State, businessman and Vice-President of the European Commission.
In June 2022, the remains of Patrice Lumumba, a tooth seized by the courts, were returned to the family by the Belgian authorities. The remains were then repatriated and buried in a mausoleum in the DRC. CPA/